


stay awake, my darling

by horrifyingvelociraptor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bedside Hand-Holding, Bedside Vigils, Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, First Aid, Gen, Hospitals, Injury, Injury Recovery, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-13 22:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horrifyingvelociraptor/pseuds/horrifyingvelociraptor
Summary: Kinkade, seemingly in perfect clarity, tells him firmly “I love you.” with a certainty that makes Griffin think it'll be the last thing he ever says.As if confirming his worst fear, Kinkade's eyelids flutter shut again and won't reopen. Griffin pats his cheek, once, then again a little harder.“Wake up. No, Ryan, wake up. Wake up, damn it!”Kinkade is seriously injured on a mission taking out Galra sentries leftover from the invasion. Griffin has poor first aid training and a fear of losing his loved ones. Somehow they survive.





	stay awake, my darling

Kinkade falls with a yell, clutching his abdomen where the ray had burnt a smoking hole in _at least_ his uniform, leaving Griffin and Leifsdottir to finish off the remaining Galra sentries.

As soon as they've taken out the robots, Griffin crouches beside his injured teammate, tugging on his arm. Leifsdottir helps pull Ryan to his feet and they almost carry him back to the jet.

“You're sure you've got him on your own?” Ina checks, receiving a nod from James in response.

She joins Rizavi up front, Griffin in the back with a groaning Kinkade, half laying on the floor, half propped up against the cool metal wall.

“You're going to be okay, you're going to be fine.” James reassures his boyfriend, cradling his head then sliding his hand down Kinkade's neck to squeeze his shoulder.

Griffin removes his other hand from Kinkade's side and it comes away slick with blood, scarlet and glistening. He curses and scrambles for the first aid kit, not an easy feat when a panicked Rizavi is pushing the craft's top speed.

Ryan winces as Griffin shoves a wad of bandage against the open wound and applies pressure. He places his hand over his boyfriend's, pressing down hard, then closes his eyes and whispers “So tired.” like it's a secret for James’s ears only.

“Stay awake for me, Kade.” Griffin grits his teeth.

The metallic scent of blood seeps into the air, salty and cloying. Leifsdottir gags. Kinkade actually _apologizes_ to her, as if it's his fault he's bleeding profusely.

“We're almost there,” Rizavi announces, stress clear in her voice. “Two minutes out, just hang on.”

“Two minutes, baby, two minutes.” Griffin repeats softly to his lover, who's struggling to focus his mossy eyes on the steel blue of James's. He strokes his cheek in a desperate attempt to comfort them both.

Griffin doesn't know what to do other than apply pressure to the gash. Kinkade's eyes flutter shut with a moan, his breathing laboured, wide nostrils flared.

“Hey, _hey_ ,” he says, sharper than he means to. Kinkade's olive irises reveal themselves. “Stay awake.”

“One minute out.” Rizavi updates, strained.

The bandage is saturated with Kinkade's blood, damp and sticky in Griffin's hand. He presses harder, shifting his legs before they grow numb.

“Sleepy, Griffin.” Kinkade mutters, eyelids drooping again.

“Stay awake.” Griffin barks, an icy terror in his gut.

“Is that an order?” The corner of Kinkade's gorgeous mouth twitches upwards.

Griffin hesitates in confusion. “Yes, it's an order.”

Shock is one hell of a drug.

James watches out the windscreen as Nadia prepares to land. Ryan tugs his sleeve like a lost child in a supermarket.

James turns back to him, scanning his face for a clue as to what's going on.

Kinkade, seemingly in perfect clarity, tells him firmly “I love you.” with a certainty that makes Griffin think it'll be the last thing he ever says.

As if confirming his worst fear, Kinkade's eyelids flutter shut again and won't reopen. Griffin pats his cheek, once, then again a little harder.

“Wake up. No, Ryan, _wake up_. Wake up, damn it!”

The ship lands in a blur and Griffin hears a voice, distant and muffled like he's underwater, yelling “We need a med team, stat!”

____________________________________________

Kinkade wakes up groggily, white lights in the med bay too bright, bright enough he thinks he's in heaven for a moment. The blue curtain, ringing his bed like a fortress, gives it away.

Someone squeezes his hand and he blinks in confusion. Hazily, he turns his head, which feels like a ton of bricks.

James perks up immediately as Ryan's green irises focus on him. He looks like he's been camped out in a chair at Kinkade's bedside for as long as he's been in the med bay - suggested by the two empty coffee cups on the wooden chest of drawers, one dozing on its side.

“Hey.” James says softly, smile and overcast ocean eyes equally as gentle as the thumb brushing over his cheek.

“Hey.” Ryan grunts back, struggling to sit up. An IV tube snakes into his deep brown wrist. Steady beeps indicate he's hooked up to a heart rate monitor too.

Griffin puts a soothing hand in the middle of his shoulders, Kinkade shifting back and groaning quietly. His whole body feels as stiff as a wooden doll.

“How are you feeling?” James perches on the edge of the bed.

Ryan manages a brave half smile. “Like I'd be a lot worse without pain meds.”

James huffs a laugh. “You're looking better.”

“Are the girls okay?” Kinkade asks, brow furrowing when his boyfriend laughs again.

“The girls didn't get _shot_ , Ryan.” Griffin reminds him, amused. “They're fine. Worried about you.”

Kinkade quirks a brow and tilts his head, corner of his mouth twitching up. “Understandable.”

“How much do you remember?” James cards his fingers through Ryan's dark locks.

He closes his eyes, vague flashes of Griffin's anxious voice swimming in his mind. “I remember you yelling at me to stay awake.”

“Do you remember 'is that an order’?”There's a laugh brewing in his tone.

“No?” Kinkade says, voice rising like it's a question while his brow knots in confusion.

“Ah,” Griffin chuckles. “So then you don't remember telling me you loved me, passing out and not waking up again?”

Kinkade snorts. “Blank on that part.”

“I didn't get a chance to say it back because I thought you died, but I love you too.” James smiles at him.

Ryan takes his lover's hand and squeezes gently. “Sorry I scared you, Jamie.” He says after a few moments of silence.

“It's not your fault.” James reassures him, stroking the back of Kinkade's hand with his thumb. “Just never do it again.”

Kinkade chuckles again, and Griffin is hit with the realisation of how lucky they both are; that they're still here, still together, sharing a tender moment that maybe, in another life, is lost forever. He leans over and presses a grateful kiss to the forehead of the man he loves.

“They're keeping you overnight for observation, by the way, so do you need anything from the dorm?”

“Uh…” Ryan thinks for a second. “My book, maybe? I left it on the nightstand - if that's not too much trouble.” He adds apologetically.

There's something endearing to James about his stoic, broad-shouldered boyfriend driving into town on his day off to go to the local-owned public  library.

James shakes his head with a grin. “I'm offering, dumbass.”

“Manners are important.” Ryan protests. “I don't want you going out of your way-”

“I'm not going out of my way-” James interrupts, shaking his fringe out of his eyes “-to bring you your book to the med bay from our dorm, where I'll be sleeping all by my lonesome tonight, can I add.”

Kinkade actually laughs, wincing a little as his side twinges. “Did the doctor say anything about this?” He gestures.

“You lost a decent amount of blood. You've had a transfusion and you'll be left with a cool scar where you got hit.”

“A cool scar?” Kinkade quirks a brow again.

“Those were her exact words.” Griffin shrugs, but it is kind of funny, he has to admit.

“Knock knock,” Rizavi tugs the curtain back with a grin, Leifsdottir's freckled face appearing over her shoulder. “I brought Oreos.”

“Hey.” Kinkade smiles, tugging the teal blanket further up his lap.

Ina lifts the other chair from the corner over to Kinkade's bedside, Nadia claiming James’s former seat.

“I'm going to get your book.” James announces, straightening up as he nods to his boyfriend.

“Be gentle with the patient.” he teases Nadia, who winks and sticks her tongue out, chucking a full pack of Oreos onto the bed so that they somersault in the air like a gymnast.

They're all going to be okay, James reassures himself as he treads through the hallways.

Ryan is stable and on the mend, and his team had a successful mission terminating Galra forces leftover from the invasion.

He'll tell them how proud they make him when he gets back.


End file.
